The Promise
by crow102
Summary: "Sans, listen to me," I heard him say. "If anything ever happens to me, promise me something. Promise me you'll look after Chara and Asriel." I stared at him, young and unsure of myself. He gripped my wrist, so tightly that it hurt. "Promise me!" he said, his voice cracking. "I... I promise."
1. Chapter 1

"Chara, Chara, Chara," I heard an admonishing voice say. "Don't you know a bad idea when you hear one?" I opened my eyes, emitting a high-pitched scream when I saw a face, ghastly and deformed, inches away from mine. A hand clapped over my mouth and I struggle under its grip.

"Quiet, child, Asriel is sleeping," the figure said, releasing its hand from my mouth and stepping backwards. I sat up in bed, glaring at the figure suspiciously.

"Who the hell are you, and what are you talking about?" The figure's eyes-no more than gaping sockets, really, darted around the room briefly before returning to me.

"I do wish you'd lower your voice, Chara. Waking Asriel would induce needless complications to a relatively simple plan."

"Which is?" I demanded, swinging my legs over the side of the bed and standing up, straight-backed and defiant. Standing at an awe-inspiring 4'11", I knew probably wouldn't have the same effect on the ghoulish being posed in front of me, but nevertheless I retained my form.

I swear the being's eyes glowed briefly, but I passed it off as a figure of my imagination, a side effect of standing up too fast. "Don't even bring it up."

I took a step towards the being. "Bring what up?" I snarled, my voice raised.

"Be. Quiet!" it hissed. "Listen to me, kid, if you don't lower your voice you're gonna have more issues than waking Asriel up." It paused, glaring at me, then continued. "Tomorrow afternoon, you will devise a plan that you think will destroy the barrier and allow the monsters to live freely and take their revenge on the humans.

"Well. It's not going to work. Asriel will die as a result. Take my advice, kiddo: don't even bring it up. Your plan will do nothing but throw monsterkind into a downwards spiral of despair. Asgore will start gathering souls to break the barrier. But the seventh human soul will be the downfall of the Underground. Understand, kid? Don't tell Asriel what you're planning."

I stared at the creature in front of me. "Who are you?" I whispered.

"Nevermind that. But remember my advice! Heed it well, or watch the Underground crumble around you." He blinked slowly. His formerly empty eyes glowed brightly, the left one blue

and the right one orange. He nodded at me once, then he dissipated into the air.

I do not understand.

 **A/N: Sorry for how short this one . Also for how crappy it is. I'll do better, I promise!**

 **-ignoring the fact that that's what got Sans into this mess-**


	2. Chapter 2

"Okay, Chara, are you ready? Do your creepy face!" Asriel aimed the camcorder at my face. I obliged, smiling creepily at the camera. "AHH! Hee hee!" Asriel responded. "Oh! Wait! I had the lens cap on..." I rolled my eyes and turned away. Typical Asriel.

"I'm not repeating that," I told him.

"What? You're not going to do it again…? Come on, quit tricking me! Haha!"

I rolled my eyes again. "No, Asri," I snapped.

"Sorry, Chara," he said, putting the camcorder away. "What do you want to play?"

"I don't know," I responded. "I'm bored of everything we play. The Underground gets old kinda fast. Nothing like the surface."

Asriel sat on the bench beside me. "Tell me about the surface again, Chara! Please?"

I glanced at him. "I've already told you everything."

"Yes, well," he said, shifting in his seat. "I want to hear it again!" A broad smile split his face. I couldn't help smiling back.

"Fine," I grumbled. I shut my eyes, thinking back to before I had come to the Underground, before I had climbed up to Mt. Ebott. "For starters," I said, "the surface is a lot bigger than the Underground. The entirety of the Underground might be the size of a human city."

"The entire Underground?!" Asriel said, shock tinging his voice.

"Well, maybe two cities," I relented. "And it was a lot easier to travel, too." I opened my eyes, gazing off into the city. "Everyone had this thing called cars. Metal boxes that travelled much, much faster than walking."

"Did they run using magic?" Asriel asked eagerly.

I shifted my gaze towards him. He was gazing at me with the goofiest smile, his brown puppy-dog eyes eternally trapped on me, totally engaged in what I was saying. I didn't like talking about the surface much. I didn't want Asriel wishing he could go there. I'd seen what other monsters had been like, obsessed over escaping from the Underground, morbidly enraptured in seeing the surface. "No," I told him. "They don't have magic on the surface. The cars run on this thing called electricity. It's not nearly as powerful as magic." _But it's much more diverse._

"I want to visit the surface someday!" Asriel said excitedly.

I glared at him. "No, you don't," I said shortly. "If you go up there, they'll kill you." My head spun slightly as I suddenly remembered the events of the night before. I felt a pit of dread form in my stomach. _Asriel will die._

"What if we went up together?" he piped. "I know you'll protect me, Chara!"

A lump formed in my throat. "I- I don't think that's a good idea."

His eyes, which had gone to inspect some slugs crawling up the castle wall, shot to me. "Chara?" he asked uncertainly. "Are you okay?"

I blinked, shook my head to clear it, and smiled at him. "Fine. Sorry about that. Let's go see if anything interesting has washed up in the Dumpster," I said, standing up and offering my hand to help him up.

"I knew you'd think of something," he said, the broad smile returning to his face. I retuned it weakly. "Race ya to Hotland!" he shouted, and took off down the city streets at a run. I shook my hand and took off after him.

Something grabbed my elbow. I tripped forwards, only prevented from falling on my face by the iron grip on my arm. I wrenched it free and turned to glare at whomever had done that.

A hooded figure sat in the shadow of an alleyway, some ten feet away. He appeared to just be a colorless outline, but as I took a step forwards, his left eye glowed blue. He beckoned me forwards.

"What are you doing here?" I hissed. "Who even are you?"

"It's fine," he assured me, grabbing my arm again. "Asriel won't notice. Listen to me, Chara. Promise you won't tell him."

I yanked my arm away. "I don't know what you're talking about. I don't even know _who you are._ "

"That's not important!" the figure insisted. "I need you to promise me that you won't tell Prince Asriel what you're planning."

"Listen," I told them, my voice rising in pitch. "I don't know who you are, where you're from, or how you got here, but you need to leave me alone."

"Chara, please," the being pleaded. "Promise me. Promise me you won't tell Asriel."

"Fine, whatever, I won't tell him," I snarled. I glanced back at them once, then took off down the street, racing to catch up with Asriel.

"Howdy, Chara!" he said. I noticed he was still holding the camcorder. "Smile for the camera!" he said again. I sighed, then grinned. "Ha, this time I got YOU!" he shouted happily. "I left the lens cap on… ON PURPOSE! Now you're smiling for noooo reason! Hee hee hee!" I fake charged at him, and he backstepped rapidly. I, however, misjudged the distance between us and came to a stop too late and was sent toppling forwards. I threw my hands out to break my fall, cursing as I jarred them. My right hand brushed against something soft and organic as I fell. I glanced at it curiously. You don't usually see foliage in New Home.

A small buttercup was growing between the cracks in the bricks. I picked it, twirling it between my fingers. I felt a weird sensation in my mind, sort of like an itch, an idea that was just out of grasp. "Hey Asri, remember when we accidentally got Dad sick on these?"

"What?" Asriel asked, glancing at the flower between my fingers. "Oh, yeah, I remember. When we tried to make butterscotch pie for Dad, right? The recipe asked for cups of butter. But we accidentally put in buttercups instead." I nodded, opening my mouth to speak, but he cut me off. "Yeah! Those flowers got him really sick. I felt so bad. We made Mom really upset. I should have laughed it off, like you did… Um, anyway, where are you going with this?"

"Turn it off."

"Huh? Turn off the camera…? OK." He pressed the button on top, stowing the camcorder in his pocket. "Well?"

"I was thinking," I began, glancing down at the flower. I screamed as a face seemed to form in the flower, almost skull-like and with a creepy, broken smile across the center. I dropped the flower, feeling blood rush to my head. I was thinking. I screamed again, dropping to my knees. "No, no, no!" I yelled, covering my head with my hands. "No, no, no, no, NO!"

That's all I remember.

 **A/N: I swear this was going to be longer but my muse is being a b**ch this month so I haven't really been able to write much for the past few days so I wanted to give all of you at least something.**

 **I mean, another reason I haven't gotten anything done is because I'm currently on the final boss of the genocide route, and I'm sure all of you genociders/people who don't avoid spoilers at all costs understand why this would impede my writing. More soon hopefully? c:**

 **~Crow**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sans**

I saw them as soon as they crept into the judgement hall. A sharp and deadly knife glinted in their right hand, Chara's locket around their neck. I grimaced. The kid at the end of the corridor was an embodiment of the reasons I didn't make any promises.

 _I'm sorry, Gaster._ I hadn't been able to save her. I didn't know what she was planning. "Dirty brother killer," I muttered under my breath.

The approached me quickly. I stepped out from behind a column, staring them in the eyes. "heya." I said. "you've been busy, huh?" I paused. "so, i've got a question for ya. do you think even the worst person can change…? that everybody can be a good person, if they just try?" I waited expectantly for a reply. The kid took a step forwards, their knife reflecting the colored light coming in the windows and sending a prism of light throughout the hall. "heh heh heh heh… all right." I blinked. "well, here's a better question. do you wanna have a bad time? 'cause if you take another step forward… you are REALLY not gonna like what happens next."

I watched them passively as they took another defiant step towards me. "welp. sorry, old lady." I said, sighing softly, almost inaudibly. _Another broken promise._ I don't think you're alive to witness this, but I'm sorry. "this is why i never make promises."

The kid stepped forwards again. I braced myself, preparing for the inevitable attack. I closed my eyes and flickered my fingers by my side, preparing to activate the Gaster Blasters. "it's a beautiful day outside." I began. "birds are singing, flowers are blooming… on days like this, kids like you…" I opened my eyes, staring through the kid. "Should be burning in hell."

I raised my arm, feeling a familiar tugging sensation as my fingers gripped the energy given off by their soul. I slammed my arms downwards, turning their soul blue, and sent a current of bones sprouting out of the ground. Taken by surprise, the kid barely had time to leap into the air in an attempt to dodge. I wondered where they learned to do that. Pap didn't have any time to fight them.

I released my grip on their soul, sending a curving tunnel of bones at them. They flew through the air, managing to avoid getting hit until the very end of the tunnel when they surged downwards, running out of energy. I saw the stunned expression on their face as their strength continued to drain even after the initial impact. I drew a formation of Gaster Blasters, smiling grimly as they glanced at them uncertainly for a minute before making a futile attempt to dodge. I saw their grimace as they got caught in the blast, and I rearranged the formation. They gaped at them briefly, and were caught in the center of the blast. I watched as their strength sapped, rearranging the Blasters and firing again. They attempted to dodge, but were barely struck. I saw their look of panic, watched them extend their arm in a futile human attempt to grasp onto something as they fell through the air. Their body landed brokenly on the floor, and I smiled grimly as their soul energy was released into the air.

"NO!" I heard a voice yell. A blur raced across the floor and next to the lifeless body of the kid. " _You killed Chara!"_ it shrieked.

"Chara died long ago!" I snarled, preparing to fire my Gaster Blasters on the whelp in front of me. I just now processed the shape of a small, yellow flower, cradling the kid's face with one of its leaves. At this point, I wasn't about to question it.

"No, no, no! Chara and I…" the flowey seemed to be sniffling. "Chara and I were going to be reunited! For once and for all!"

I dropped the Blasters. "What the hell are you talking about?"

The flower turned to me. "Chara will RESET!" it screamed. "We will unite in another timeline!"

I stared at it for a minute. Then I leapt forwards, plucking up the flower. It struggled in my grip but I held on. "Tell me what you're talking about!" I demanded, a conflict of feelings rising in my chest. I didn't know what this flower meant exactly, but I had an idea. If I was right…

The flower just stared at me, a broken expression on its face. "Please," I added. "Keeping quiet won't do you any good."

The flower glared at me for a minute before speaking. "Fine," it snarled. "This timeline is doomed anyways. Where shall I start?"

I tilted my head at the life form cradled in my hands. "From the start would be nice."

 **A/N: Ugh sorry for short. I *think* the next chapter will be longer but-**

 **Well.**

 **Actually, maybe not.**

 **I've started working on it, but I'm not done. I'm not sure if I'm close to finishing, but I *should* be able to get at least 1,000 words which is what I've set as the minimum goal.**

 **Still, these two chapters should be posted back to back, maybe within like an hour of each other, so hopefully all shall be forgiven? c: Maybe? Possibly? *Please?***

 **~Crow**


	4. Chapter 4

**Sans**

"...As a result, I had the ability to SAVE and RESET, which-" the flower, whose name I learned was "Flowey."

"Wait wait wait," I said. "You can create alternate timelines?" I dropped Flowey in shock.

"Hey!" it snapped.

"Sorry," I muttered, picking it up. He glared at me. " _Sorry!"_ I insisted. He harrumphed, then continued.

"Yes, you could say that," he said. "You see, I had gotten the ability from Chara, whose soul I had absorbed-"

" _WHAT?!"_ I said, my voice cracking. Flowey glared at me, then continued.

"Good grief, I thought you were supposed to be smart. Chara was… _is_ … my best friend. She devised a plan to free the monsters, but in order to do so I would have to absorb her soul."

I stared at the flower. "You're Prince Asriel."

"Oh my _GOD,_ how dense are you?" the flower shrieked. " _Yes! I am Prince Asriel!_ May I _please_ continue?!"

"No no no," I said, excitedly. "And you have the RESET ability?"

"Yes, I _said_ that," Flowey sighed. "So _as I was saying-_ "

"Listen to me, Flowey," I cut him off. "You still consider Chara your best friend?" he nodded. "Okay, well, what if I told you we could avoid her ever telling you about her plan?"

His head snapped up. "What?!"

"I've been observing the patterns of the timeline since long before Chara fell into the Underground," I said, beginning to pace. "If I could send a signal to the me in that timeline from this one, then the me in the universe could warn Chara against telling you and therefore from enacting her plan. Certainly she would listen if she was told that you would die?"

Flowey stared at me. "I… I think so. What exactly are you planning? I can't RESET that far into the past."

I felt my hopes come crashing to the ground. "Are… you're sure?"

"Pretty sure," he responded. He glanced at me. "Sorry, pal."

I sighed. "There has to be a way to completely RESET the timeline," I said.

"Sorry, pal. I wish there was," Flowey said, actually tearing up. "Well, there is, but only a human can do it."

I glared at him, gesturing towards the human's soul, still fogging the area. "We have a human soul right here!"

Flowey shook his head. "No. _A human_ has to perform the RESET. Not just a human soul."

I hissed under my breath. _I'm sorry, Gaster._ My head snapped up as I thought the words. "That's it!" I said, my excitement and hopefulness returning. I hugged Flowey to my chest, and he wriggled in protest. "Come with me," I said, running down the judgement hall.

"You're not giving me much of a choice," Flowey pointed out, struggling in my grasp.

"Oh, be quiet," I told him. "Hold on. I know a shortcut, but it's a bit rough terrain."

"What?" he asked, straightening up and peering around fearfully.

"Shh," I told him. I traced my arm in a doorway shape as I ran, and leapt through.

We materialized in Snowdin a moment later. Flowey groaned in protest. "Oh, my stomach," he muttered. "You should have warned me."

"I did," I pointed out, then added, "And you're a flower. You don't have a stomach."

Flowey narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. "Well," he said. "Either way. Try to be more gentle next time?"

"I'll try," I said. "Now come on."

"You still haven't put me down," he pointed out. "I can't exactly _not_ come on."

I glanced down at him. "Whatever." I ran behind my house in Snowdin, fumbling with the lock on the door to the lab that used to belong to Gaster and I.

"What is this place?" Flowey asked as we entered.

"My lab," I told him briefly. I set the flower down on the table and turned towards the tarp-covered machine in the corner. Taking a deep breath, I yanked the tarp off of it.

"Holy mother of Asgore," Flowey said. "The hell is that?"

I stood back, eying the tangle of cords and wires that made up the majority of the machine. A smile creased my face. "We spent hours working on this."

Flowey glanced at me, unimpressed, and flatly said, "What is it."

I turned to glare at him, but a grin broke out after a few seconds. "It's a trans-dimensional device," I told him excitedly. "We can use it to cross time and space and return to the point right before Chara and Asriel-"

"Me. Chara and me," Flowey cut across.

I rolled my eyes. "Return to the point right before Chara and _you_ devised the plan to break the barrier."

"So, uh," Flowey began. "Why exactly do you need me here? Couldn't you have just come up with this _years_ ago, hell, right after I died? Why did you need to wait?"

I turned back towards the machine. "It requires an incredibly strong power source. Gaster and I were working on creating one, but he-" I cut off.

"Gaster?" Flowey asked. "Wasn't he the royal scientist? Didn't he die trying to-" he halted, glancing at the machine. "Oh… Oh no. This isn't-"

"He died trying to get this machine to work," I whispered. My vision blurred and I wiped by eyes. "He attempted to harness the CORE's power, but-" I choked, shaking my head. I turned away, doing my best to halt the tear threatening to roll down my cheek.

"Oh, hell no. I'm not gonna sacrifice my life trying to get this machine to work," Flowey said. "In an alternate timeline, Chara is trying to kill you right now. Sooner or later she'll succeed and we'll be reunited there. I can sacrifice this timeline." He hopped off of the table and began crawling towards the door.

I shook my head, wiping my eyes. "There's no need," I managed to get out. "We already have a power source."

Flowey turned and glanced back at me. "Oh?" he asked, his interest revived. "What is it?"

I turned towards him, smiling through my tears. "You," I told him.

 **A/N: 1,008 words. Boom! I guess I probably should have counted this and the last chapter as one, but that's okay. Y'all can deal with having to press "Next" one extra time, I hope.**

 ***squishes Flowey* You are adorable. The funny thing is, I never really got on board with the whole "ohhh Flowey is a great character he deserves our sympathy and LOVE."** **pun intended** **Yet the Flowey in this is gonna be flippin adorable OwO so look forwards to that. Don't count this as spoilers?**

 **~Crow**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chara**

"Chara, wake up!" Asriel was the first voice I heard. "Please?" he piped quietly.

"Asriel, child, please-" Toriel began.

" _What happened to her?"_ Asriel sobbed, his voice muffled. I heard Toriel crooning him softly.

"Asri, what exactly was Chara doing before she fell unconscious?" That was Asgore.

"I… I don't know," he whispered, baffled. "She was… she just started screaming, then… then she blacked out. I don't know, I swear!"

I cracked my eyes open. We were still out by the CORE elevator. A small crowd had gathered, onlooking with curiosity and worry. "Asri…" I whispered, cutting off into a coughing fit.

"Chara!" Asriel screamed, rushing from Toriel to my side. "What happened? Are you okay?"

I looked up at him for a moment. "I… I don't know." I sat up, cursing as my head began to throb. I glanced around, then felt Asriel violently hail me to my feet.

"Chara," I heard someone in the crowd whisper. I glanced over to the sound to of voice, feeling a pit form in my stomach as I saw the same hooded figure, somehow still not appearing to have any coloration despite being in broad daylight. His left eye glowed bright blue briefly, and I caught a glimpse of a manic smile in the faint light it cast, then he seemed to scatter into a million pieces and was cast into the wind.

I almost told him. I shuddered. I still didn't know who this guy was, and I had no way of telling whether or not he was telling the truth, or even if he had just the slightest idea of what he was talking about. I had no idea how he would have somehow come back from the future, but I wasn't about to risk Asriel's life on some plan that he said would fail. Never Asriel.

"Chara?" Toriel asked me worried. I glanced at her quickly, realizing that I had been staring at the spot where the figure was standing for several seconds now.

"Sorry," I muttered, dusting off the back of my pants. "Um. Sorry to block traffic. Or something," I said grabbing Asriel's paw and led him over to where Asgore and Toriel were standing. "Are we still going to the Dump?" I asked him.

"You most certainly are not," Toriel interrupted sternly. I turned to make an angry retort, but she forestalled me. "You just fainted, Chara, and nobody knows why. The only information we have is that you collapsed to the ground, started repeatedly shouting 'NO!' over and over again, then blacked out. You are absolutely not scampering off to Waterfall where Asgore and I are half an hour's walk away without a good reason." I opened my mouth to argue, but she gave me her evil Toriel glare and all I could do was shut my mouth, harrumph, and turn away.

"Fine," I muttered. "C'mon, Asri, let's go home." I took off at a run down the street, pushing through the still partially-assembled crowd. I saw Asriel in my peripheral vision, glance hesitantly as first Asgore then Toriel, before chasing after me. I saw our parents stare after us worriedly, heard Toriel's sad half-sigh, and sped up to a jog.

Asriel caught up to me eventually, chest heaving and out of breath. "Chara... wait..." he panted, coming to a stop and drawing in ragged gasps of air. I turned and skidded to a stop, waiting expectantly. "You were... what were you saying... before you... passed out?"

"I... oh. Um... I don't really remember," I lied.

"You were saying something about the time we accidentally made Dad sick. On those buttercups. Remember?"

I did my best to manage a blank face, shoving my hands in my pockets so the Asriel wouldn't see them shaking. I tried to shrug nonchalantly, but I could tell the motion was choppy and awkward. "I… I don't really remember what happened before I fell," I said. I could hear that my voice was higher pitched than normal and hoped that Asriel couldn't. "I guess… I guess I most have lost some of my memory… or… something…" I said, doing my best to sound natural but probably failing. Asriel didn't look too suspicious of me, anyways, but while that was good (as he was my only present company) it didn't really say much about how much of my composure I had regained.

"Are you okay now?" Asriel asked, genuine concern touching his voice. I felt a surge of warmth towards the little guy.

"I feel fine," I said, grabbing Asriel's paw as I started walking again. "I guess… I guess I was dehydrated… or something. I should probably get some water."

"Um… don't humans get headaches… or something, when they're thirsty?" Asriel asked.

"I… uh…" I hesitated. "I…. never have. I don't know about others. You know I never liked them much." I glanced at him briefly and saw him nod.

"Why not?" he asked.

I licked my lips nervously. "Uh… humans are not… very good people."

"Is that why you're so bitter a lot of the time?" I turned and glared at him. "Sorry," he muttered.

I sighed. "You could say that. But I'm surprised you haven't learned as much by studying the war," I told him pointedly.

"I… er…" he began. "Hehe… sorry." He glanced at the ground. "I don't understand why the humans had to force us to flee down here. We never did anything to them! Why do they hate us, Chara?"

I hesitated. "Because humans are stupid," I told him shortly. I dropped his paw and took off sprinting down the street. I didn't want to talk with him about it.

 **A/N: -random fan theory bc I'm lame and don't know where else to put it but I must share-**

 **Has is occurred to any of you that Napstablook has probably seen the surface? I mean, we know that there a dozen of holes throughout the Underground that lead to the surface, and we know that there Blooky can float rather high because in the Mad Dummy fight-**

 **oh my glob.**

 **Blook probably came from the surface then guys! I mean, where tf else would he? she? come from if not from the surface? Unless the Waterfall cavern has a ridiculously high roof, where would they come from? And wouldn't the Mad Dummy be at least a little bit curious as to how there was acid rain when there wasn't a hole/pit/thing that led to the surface? YOU GUYSSS**

 **-ahem-**

 **Let's assume for a moment that they didn't come from the surface then because I have evidence and I don't feel like wasting it. Anyways... Plainly speaking, why wouldn't Napstabloook visit the surface often? Even if they for some reason couldn't escape through the various holes in the Waterfall, they said they visit the Ruins often and there would be absolutely nothing preventing them from floating up to the surface through Mt. Ebott. And even if they couldn't get out through there-say, the humans put other barriers in place-what would prevent Blook from simply floating through the mountain to get to the surface? I mean, Blook may or may not suffer from depression (I honestly don't know that much about it ._.) which may make them more uncaring about seeing the surface, but still, we know they can travel through solid surfaces from the initial fight in the Ruins, so what would prevent them from visiting the surface? And maybe, before MTT became corporeal, they visited the surface, too, which you explain their unusual knowledge about the surface. (Either that or they were alive during the war. Somehow I can't imagine MTT being nearly as old as Gerson, though they were a ghost so maybe their lifespans are weird. Still.)**

 **SERIOUSLY THOUGH GUYS WTF**

 **-fan theory rant over-**

 **~Crow out**


	6. Chapter 6

**Sans**

"Watch out, kiddo," I said, quickly grabbing on the the sleeve of her sweater and stepping backwards. I watched Chara's look of first confusion then suspicion as I dragged her into the portal. We rematerialized in my garage a moment later.

"You again," she hissed. "What do you want now?"

"Relax, kiddo, everything's fine. I'm not going to hurt you," I reassured them.

"What do you want with me?" she demanded, her eyes burning with anger. "I didn't tell Asriel anything! Why did you bring me here?" she glanced around. "And why is it so god damned cold here?"

"What's the matter, kid, never been to Snowdin?" I joked. "Come on. If you come inside, I'll make you some tea."

"It looks like I'm already inside to me," she said, glaring at me, but reluctantly followed me into the house.

"Have a seat on the couch," I told her. "Papyrus won't be home for another few hours, so we have a while."

"Who are you?" she asked as I brought her a mug of tea. "And how did you make tea so fast?"

"I'm sans. sans the skeleton. and I have my ways," I said, winking at her. "so. you're chara."

"Nooo," she said, her voice tainted with sarcasm. "Haven't you heard of a celebrity stunt double?"

"we don't have celebrities down here, kid," I told her. "I don't know how it works in the human world-" I cut off, standing up abruptly. "Stay here, kiddo," I said, cutting a portal into the space-time fabric. I saw Chara glance at me questioningly and had time to wink and step through the portal, just in time to hear the door creak open.

I remember being in this point in the timeline. I've never experienced the timeline resetting this far back, presumably due to what Flowey had untactfully pointed out to me in the judgement hall: only a human can perform what he explained was called a true reset. I remembered this time well enough to know that Papyrus always went out at this time of day to watch Undyne, though. (He called this "school." I disagree with his reasoning, but that's okay.) I had planned for that variable when I chose to bring Chara here.

One variable I hadn't accounted for, however, was myself.

I had grown so used to the timeline resetting that I was no longer surprised to find myself innocently minding my Hotland hotdog stand or drinking ketchup at Grillby's only to suddenly wake up in my bed again. I don't think anyone else was aware of these resets-except for, during the time of his tragically short life-Gaster. I had treated returning to this time the same as I would have it was just a reset. But it wasn't. I still exist in this timeline. Essentially, there are now two Sanses in this timeline. If the other Sans had seen me, nobody's entirely sure of what would would happen. However, two equally likely subsequent events would be a) both of us disappearing (and not just because we jumped into a portal), or b) the timeline would be ripped apart. I didn't particularly want to risk either of them happening.

I didn't know how long I had to wait, crouching down here in the lab, before the other Sans left. The timelines had all blurred together in one giant, tragic heap and even if I remembered perfectly what happened in each one, I had no way of knowing what timeline we were in, or if we were in a timeline before the human begun resetting. It's unlikely that we were in the same timeline we had been in before we went back in time; to activate the machine, we had needed to harness the energy produced by Flowey's RESET power. Unfortunately, this energy is rather rebellious and difficult to control, and we had barely managed to activate the machine without totally blowing up the lab, and, along with it, ourselves.

Flowey was probably pretty pissed at me by now, I thought with some grim amusement. I may or may not have left him stranded in New Home, and not that I knew the little bugger well (our only previous encounters having been when he tries to kill me in some of the timelines, or, evidently, in the previous timeline,) but I got the feeling that he would not appreciate being left stranded in the King's castle. So, I figured I might as well leave him there for a little while.

Surprisingly enough, it does not take very long to get bored of hiding in a darkened lab without knowing how long you're going to have to stay there or where exactly you can go without fear of ripping the timeline apart. Inevitably, I subjected to this boredom (about five minutes later) and very gracefully attempted to create a portal beneath Chara's feet. Since I was in what was essentially the basement to the house and was trying to create a portal through a solid surface, this did not end very well. I gaped at the red couch that had appeared on the floor in front of me for a moment before sending it back, and, with greater precision, retrieved Chara.

She glared at me as she appeared. "You made me drop my tea!" she complained.

I returned her glare briefly as I retrieved the teacup from my living room. We both pretended not to notice the massive crack in the side. Papyrus is going to be upset, I thought. That was his favorite teacup. "How did it go?"

"How did what go?" Chara asked, sipping the tea appreciatively. "What flavor is this?"

"Golden flower tea. It's from the future."

"It's what." She said it as a statement, her voice flat.

"I'm from the future, too."

"Of course you are," she said. I grinned at her, spreading my hands in a what-can-I-say sort of way. "So how did what go?"

"With me. Or, the other me. Timelines are confusing," I said as she gazed at me blankly.

"Well," she said, "It was... unusual. He didn't ask what I was doing in his house, or where I got the tea from. He just sort of stared at me, said 'hey, Chara. i'm going to grillby's, do you want anything?' so I said no, thank you, then he shrugged and took a bottle of ketchup out of the refrigerator. He made no attempt to actually leave to go to Grillby's and instead reached into the fridge and began drinking straight from the bottle of ketchup. He seemed vaguely interested but unsurprised when the couch disappeared, and somehow knew to wave goodbye right before you took me away, despite the fact that you gave absolutely no warning." She added the last with a glare.

"I think you can consider stealing the couch warning enough," I grumbled.

"So, uh, why did you bring me here again?" she continued. "I don't exactly appreciate being removed from the castle without warning. Who even are you, anyways?"

"I'm Sans. Sans the skeleton. Nice to meet you-sort of."

"Beg pardon?" She looked affronted.

"Sorry. I meant sort of to the 'meeting you' part." Chara didn't look convinced, but I ignored her. 'You see, to me, we've already met." I grimaced. "It uh… wasn't exactly… pleasant. To say the least." I winced slightly. I relived every step of my journey with the human hundreds, thousands of times as they reset. Frisk was simultaneously one of my closest friends and my worst enemy, depending on which timeline you looked at. I'd seen the best of her and the worst of her-except, apparently not. If what Flowey said was correct, the child in front of me was the murderer.

"Er… why do you keep doing that?"

I blinked. "Doing what?" I was genuinely puzzled.

"Your right eye keeps glowing.. I didn't even think skeletons had eyes," she said.

"Oh. Um, well… Sorry about that. We do. Evidently."

"Are you okay?" she asked. Then, without giving me any time to answer (a fact for which I was grateful) she plowed on. "So, uh, what happened?"

"That made our meeting unpleasant?" She nodded. "Oh. Well. I don't think you'd appreciate hearing about that."

"Why not?" Her head tilted to side.

"I don't really appreciate talking about it, either," I said through gritted teeth. "That's why I came back to this time, you see. I need to make sure that will never happen."

 **A/N: Oh hi it's been a while, hasn't it? tbh I don't know why I was gone for so long I had this chapter written for like a week, but for some reason my dumba** decided to just let it sit in my Google Drive for no reason. Past me is dumb.**

 **Oh, also school. That's a thing.**

 **Also, 1,000 views?! Is it bad that I'm proud of that?**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chara**

I stared at the skeleton. I noticed that his eye was glowing again. Previously, it had only glowed briefly, but right now it was eternal, consumed with anger. "So, uh… Are you going to tell me, or…?"

"I said, _I don't like talking about it."_ he growled. I shrugged.

"Seems like you're already talking about it to me," I pointed out. "And I think you'd have a higher chance of preventing it if you let me know exactly what it was you didn't want me to do-although, bear in mind, I may not listen. I have absolutely no idea who you are or whether or not you're trustworthy. Or if you're telling the truth." I paused briefly, then continued, "And in any case, why would you bring me here if you didn't want to talk about it? To let me know that I've made the right god damned choice or some other crap like that? You wouldn't have to bring me here to tell me. I wouldn't even care."

Sans sighed. "Very well," he said. He sat down on the cold linoleum flooring, and gestured for me to sit beside him. I declined the invitation and, with some difficulty, hopped onto the small counter, my legs dangling off the edge. The counter was almost as tall as I was. Sans did not immediately begin his tale. He just stared at me endlessly. His eye had stopped glowing.

"Well?" I prompted with some annoyance. I've been told I'm very impatient.

"Sorry," he said. "You'll pardon me if I leave out some of the details? I wouldn't want to change the timeline."

I stared at him. "No," I said. "That's why you came back in time, you said. _Specifically_ to change the timeline."

The skeleton hesitated, his mouth open slightly. "I suppose it is." He glanced around, taking a deep breath. "Let's see. I suppose it began in here, actually. Looks like the machine isn't built yet… Actually." He stood up, turning around in a circle several times. "What the hell?"

I sighed. "What happened this time?"

He said nothing for several seconds. "No, no, no, this is all wrong."

" _What?"_

"I… am not supposed to exist... in this timeline."

"But I saw you upstairs."

He said nothing, nodding slightly as he processed the piece of information. "Tell me, Chara, who is the Royal Scientist?"

"What?" I asked, puzzled by the non sequitur. "Uh… some guy named W.C. Gaster, or… something like that." Sans muttered something quietly. "Beg pardon?"

"W.D. It's W.D. Gaster."

I shrugged. "So?"

"And he's the only one there is."

"It's called the Royal Scientist, not the Royal _Scientists."_ I said. I was starting to get annoyed with the skeleton.

"...I see. Well then." He tugged on the strings of his hoodie. "I am not particularly interested to know what is in store for me here."

"What?"

"Nevermind." He hesitated. "Look, Chara, I've been keeping tabs on timelines for so long that I'm no longer sure which sections I lived through. Anyways," he said, shaking his head. "I was Gaster's… lab assistant." He stumbled over the words slightly. "Listen, kid, I don't even know if it's safe you tell you all of this. Don't be mad at me if the timeline rips apart, okay?"

" _WHAT?!"_ my voice cracked. "No, no, no, that's absolutely _not okay._ Listen, skeleton, I don't what exactly-"

"Do you want to know or not?" he snapped, interrupting me. "Kid, I don't know much about you, admittedly, but listen to me: you have the power to RESET. If this timeline gets ripped apart, not much will happen except you'll RESET and life will continue as normal-sort of. Except nobody dies."

I stared at him, my eyes narrowed. "How the hell do you know this much about me."

The skeleton gave a hollow laugh, full of derision. "Do you think you're the only one who can remember through the timelines, kid? No." He finger-gunned me momentarily, flicked his hand, and the lab disappeared around me.

"Chara?" Asriel's voice piped up. "What took you so long? Why are you holding a teacup?"

I glanced down at the piece of china cupped in my hands. "I, uh… oh. Um," I stuttered. My eyes flicked from side to side nervously. Eventually, seeing that no other more logical course of option presented itself, I tossed the teacup over the side of the castle wall. I heard the sound of shattering glass a moment later, followed by a cry of alarm. "...Ignore that, Asri." He stared at me, clearly unsatisfied by my explanation, or lack thereof. "I, uh… some guy randomly gave it to me." I wasn't _technically_ lying.

"Um… why?" he asked.

"Uh… Yeah, I have no idea." Asriel still looked suspicious. The kid may be young and innocent, but he's not _stupid._ I shrugged helplessly. Sorry, Asri. Can't tell you this one. "He, uh… pulled me over to the side, said he had to talk to me. Then he offered me tea."

"What did he talk to you about?" His eyebrows, if he could be said to have any, were furrowed together in confusion."

I was silent for a minute. "Can't tell you that, Asri," I said, unconsciously mimicking Sans as I finger-gunned him, right before RESETing to my last save.

His eye was glowing blue again. "Got a problem?" I muttered thickly. He seemed to process what was going on and shut his eyes for a few seconds. They had reverted to normal by the time he reopened them.

"Sorry, Chara," he said. His voice was decidedly lackluster in apology. "Back so soon?"

"Yes. Please don't send me back so soon this time? And definitely don't send me back right in front of Asri, _still holding a teacup._ " I glared at him briefly.

"Sorry, kid." He didn't sound too sorry. "What do you-"

"Why do you hate me?" I interrupted. He blinked uncertainly.

"I, uh… oh." He sighed. "It's a long story."

"I have time," I said, narrowing my eyes. "Besides, as you so tactfully put out last time, I could always just RESET and nobody will be any the wiser."

He hesitated. "Good point," he admitted grudgingly. "I suppose you have the right to know." He sighed, glancing around the room. I hopped back up onto the counter.

"Listen, kid, everything that I'm going to say here is going to sound false."

"I think we're way past you telling me that. Everything you've said so far has sounded like a fairytale."

He stared at me. "Then… why... why are you… still here?" He blinked rapidly. Evidently he had something stuck in his eye.

"I want to hear the happy ending," I said. I thought my voice was clearly laced with sarcasm; clearly Sans didn't think so. He opened his mouth angrily, his eye flashing blue momentarily, but I cut him off. "I'm joking," I said. He closed his mouth, his jaw tightening, and nodded briefly. I tilted my head. "So?" I prompted.

The skeleton took a deep breath. "As I hope I've made clear enough to you, I've been observing the flow of the timelines since you first RESET." He paused, then admitted, somewhat grudgingly, "Well, actually, no. I've been observing the flow of the timelines since I was first born. I… was not technically alive at this point in time." Seeing me open my mouth to speak, he held his hands up. "I'll get to that," he said quickly. I grimaced slightly before nodding. "Anyways, my time is… a good fifty years, maybe, past this point. Asgore… After you… died-"

"Hold up," I interrupted him. "How… how far into the future would this be?"

He craned his neck to look up at me from his seat on the floor. "Chara," he said, annoyance creeping into his voice, "Did you simply fall to the floor shouting ' _No! No! No!'_ at the exact moment in which you, in any other timeline, would have explained your plan to Asriel purely by coincidence?"

"I, uh… well." I raised my eyebrows marginally as I continued, "As you told me creepily in the middle of the night, apparently that plan would fail."

He nodded slowly, opening his mouth to speak briefly then shut it. He was quiet for a minute, before saying, "That's not what I meant."

"Beg pardon?"

"I mean your plan to break the barrier would fail. Not your plan to poison yourself." He glared at me, saying, "Asriel isn't as young, innocent, or dumb as you might think, Chara."

"I never said anything about thinking he was dumb!" I protested.

"In the other timelines," Sans began, "Asriel absorbs your soul according to plan. However, he immediately feels terrible about the plan-in his mind, he murdered his best friend and sister, and refuses to cross the barrier. Your soul takes control of his body and forces him into the human world. By this point, however, Asriel has regained control. He doesn't fight back. The humans try to kill him." He narrowed his eyes. "You know how humans are better than almost anyone else."

"Almost?" I said, looking Sans up and down. "Do you know anyone who's lived among humans?"

Sans hesitated. "Well… no." He sounded somewhat unsure of himself. I narrowed my eyes, suspicious and perplexed, as he plowed on. "You, of all people, know what humans are like." I nodded reluctantly. My people were not good people. "Anyways, but you and Asriel end up dying, and the barrier is no closer to being broken. Your father starts to collect the souls of the fallen souls, hoping to eventually break the barrier.

"The farthest the timeline's ever gone is to the seventh human, the last soul Asgore needed to break the barrier… To put it simply, Frisk has more determination than anyone I've ever seen. It shouldn't be possible for one entity, human or otherwise to possess that much determination." His left eye began glowing again.

I was quiet for a minute. I did not understand what this Frisk character had to do with everything, but Sans did not seem to like them very much. "Why don't you like them, either?"

Sans laughed. "Are you kidding? I love the kid. Sort of."

"Beg pardon."

"Frisk has RESET hundreds of times. At least a quarter of those are True RESETS. We've started from the complete beginning of the timeline over and over again. I've watched her break the barrier dozens of times. I've also- also seen…" he managed to choke out the last few words, then fell silent. He pulled a red scarf out of his pocket that couldn't possibly have fit in there. He held the scarf in both hands. I don't know how it's possible for a skeleton to cry, but Sans did so at that moment.

"I've also seen her kill everyone I ever cared about."

 **A/N: For the record, since this chapter has allusions to it, I do not follow the headcanon that Sans is human. Doesn't make sense to me. I do, however, follow this headcanon: watch?v=_uBGfEOoDkM**


	8. Chapter 8

**Sans**

I could see the shock light in Chara's eyes as I said the words. So she's still human here, I thought grimly. She's not totally devoid of emotion. I grimaced. She was not going to like hearing what came next, and while I didn't know the kid too well, I got the feeling she would do anything and everything in her power to get me to tell her. And, though I didn't really want to concede, it would probably help get her to not change the timeline more than anything.

"Why?" Chara said after a moment of silence.

"I… you wouldn't want to hear it."

Chara shrugged. "Fine, tell me why you hate me instead." I prepared to breath a sigh of relief, grateful to have dodged the subject, then narrowed my eyes as I realized I had really just succeeded in giving her a different effect of the same cause.

"You don't want to hear that, either."

"You said you would tell me." A light of challenge and rebellion dawned in her eyes. I said nothing, simply holding her gaze, until she eventually looked away.

"Whose scarf is that?" she asked.

I glanced down at Papyrus's scarf. My hands began to shake. I know the kid had RESET again and again, and I'd seen Papyrus die and get revived as Frisk RESET over and over, but still. I didn't want to-

Oh my god.

I leapt to my feet suddenly, losing my grip of the scarf and barely managing to catch it before it hit the floor. "Listen kid, stay here. Please, please, please don't RESET. I have to find someone. It's urgent."

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" I heard them say indignantly. Swiftly, I cut a portal into the fabric of space-time, stepping through. I had already begun to cross when I felt Chara tug on the sleeve of my hoodie.

I heard her grunt as we landed. I myself landed easily, but then I had been prepared for the two meters we would fall and had become acclimated to the nausea-inducing ride. "I thought I told you to stay there."

"Yeah, well, I'm technically the Princess and you aren't supposed to exist," she said stubbornly. "I think I outrank you." I couldn't prevent a smile from slipping through, though I masked it before the human could see. "Where… where are we?"

"Never been to the castle basement before, Princess?" I asked. I pushed my way through the darkness.

"It's never looked this way before." She squinted. "Are those coffins? What the hell?!"

"We're in the future, kid. This is where Asgore kept the souls."

"Ummm… why? And why is the first one open? And empty?"

"I've found that when you're trying to hide something, the best place to hide it is in the future. Very few people are time travellers. And those that are wouldn't be fazed by finding a small, hell-bound talking flower who occasionally attempts to destroy the world." I saw Chara's eyes widen, reflecting the little light that there was to see by.

"Hey! It's not nice to talk to people _in front of_ their backs!" I heard Flowey say. He ran awkwardly over to us (I'm still not sure how he managed to do that) then stopped suddenly. " _Chara!"_ he shrieked, running between her feet. "Chara, I'm… I'm so sorry… Are you okay…"

"Flowey!" I snapped. Chara looked very uncomfortable. "Give us a moment, please," I told her. I picked the flower up by the stem, ignoring his protests, and stepped farther into the darkness, out of Chara's weak human sight. "Are you mad?" I hissed. "Can't you tell she's from the past? She has no idea what you're talking about!"

"Why did you bring her here?" he growled. "You know not to bring them forwards in time, surely!"

"It was an accident! She grabbed onto my hoodie!" I protested.

"You should have told her!"

"I did!"

Flowey glared at me for a minute. "Fine," he harrumphed eventually. "What's done is done. So why did you come here?"

I hesitated. "How much, exactly, do you know about RESET mechanics?"

"Probably more than you do," he said, struggling in my grip and eventually falling to the stone floor. "What is it?"

"Hypothetically," I began, "all points in time exist simultaneously. The power of the machine has given me the ability to teleport not only through space but through time as well. Now, as far as we know, I'm the only one who _exists_ in the fourth dimension-that is, time-right now. I can take others along for the ride, but I am the only one who possesses that power myself."

"You could say that," the flower said. He looked annoyed, probably rightfully so. He had sacrificed his RESET ability to give me that power.

"Now, since Frisk hypothetically still exists in the future, what is there to prevent her from simply RESETing and undoing all of our work?"

"Technically speaking, Frisk doesn't exist in the future. You killed her." My eyes widened, realization dawning as that occurred to me. "However," Flowey said, before I could bask in victory for too long, "You know that our information on humans is incomplete. We have no way of knowing whether she's actually creating another timeline or if she's simply going back to the point in time right before you killed her without creating an alternate course of events."

"But if she wasn't creating an alternate course of events, wouldn't she simply die at the same point in time? What's the point of that?"

Flowey glared at me. "You're supposed to be the scientist," he grumbled. "You know that you can't create alternate timelines. Yet you chose to go back in time in hopes of changing this one. Instead of creating an _alternate_ course of events, you're hoping to _replace_ those that already exist. Understand, skeleton?" I nodded. What Flowey said made sense.

"But what are the implications for our mission?"

Flowey sighed. "You said it yourself: you currently exist on the fifth dimension, and can travel through time as easily as I can walk. So, let's imagine it like that. Say your brother was fighting Chara." My head snapped up and I glared at him. He ignored me. "Meanwhile, you are in New Home, trying to warn Asgore. Does your brother's death have any effect on your ability to warn Asgore?" he asked.

"Yes," I said, aggrieved. "It most certainly does. You saw what happened when Chara killed everyone."

" _Lower your voice!"_ Flower hissed. Too late.

"When I _what?"_ I heard Chara say through the darkness. Flowey glared at me and I looked at him helplessly.

 _Sorry,_ I mouthed.

"Ignore him!" snapped the flower. "Eternal observation of RESETs can drive you insane, you know. Especially when their brother keeps dyi- Hey!" This last exclamation was wrought from him as I plucked him up from the ground and slung him across the room.

"Be quiet, weed," I growled at him. I turned back towards Chara. I could tell she couldn't see me, but I could make her out in the darkness. "Let's pretend this never happened, okay, _Princess?"_

"Absolutely not," she said. She stepped forwards, presumably tracking my voice, until her eyes locked on me. "I want answers, skeleton, and you can provide them."

 **A/N: Can someone pleeeeaase write some reviews? Please? Positive or negative? Help me make this not trash please ._.**


	9. AN: 1-800-wherearethewords

Hey everyone who has stumbled upon this story. I don't know if you noticed, but this story has kind of grown dormant for a month. In case anyone is wondering why (which they're probably not, but whatever), here's the deal: April is a VERY busy month for me. It's the end of a grading period so my schoolwork load has been significantly heavier, I had a huge saxophone recital that I was very nervous for, and, perhaps most significantly, I'm participating in NaNoWriMo. (For those of you that don't know, it is an abbreviation for National Novel Writing Month, where you have to try to write 50,000 words of a novel in a month. My novel, unfortunately, is not fanfiction.) Anyways, the month has just been ungodly stressful and I haven't had much time to work on fanfiction.

In case anyone cares, you should be getting some more stuff later this week. Sorry again for my absence.

~Crow


	10. Chapter 9

**Chara**

I saw his jawline set stubbornly as I said the words. "And why, exactly, should I give you your answers?" His left eye was glowing again. It reflected eerily upon his face, faintly illuminating the area around us.

"Because," I said, carefully articulating each syllable, "If you don't, I will RESET. And RESET. And RESET. Until, that is, I get some answers out of you. So, unless you want to be stuck in this room till the end of time, I'd suggest cooperating."

His right eye seemingly disappeared and he thrust his arm forwards. I gave a brief yell of surprise as I was lifted off the ground. I struggled, unable to move. I felt a presence latching onto my soul and I attempted, with little success, to free it. I tried to RESET, but Sans seemed to be sapping my determination.

"Sans, _stop,"_ a high-pitched voice said. "This isn't Frisk!"

"Frisk had her soul," the skeleton snarled. He raised his arm, lifting me high into the air. "She's close enough."

" _Sans!"_ the small, apparently sentient and mobile flower from before ran out from the darkness. "You came back in time to _stop_ Frisk from absorbing her soul, remember? Killing her now is pointless!"

"She can't kill everyone if she's dead!"

"You're a fool!" spat the flower. "She was dead when Frisk came, too! Now _stop it!"_ He shouted the last two words.

"I'll teach her not to mess with me! She'll never dare attempt genocide!" He tensed his arm, preparing to slam it down to the ground, when a bright flash lit up from where the flower was standing. A moment later, an immense creature appeared in his place, running out between Sans and I. The creature looked like something from a nightmare, with a grotesque animal skull-looking head, thick, plant-like arms and a tangle of what appeared to me wires of some sort above his head.

" _ **ENOUGH!"**_ the creature roared, the word reverberating loudly around the room. " _ **I WON'T LET YOU HURT CHARA!"**_ Sans lowered his arm and I fell to the floor, gratefully noting that the skeleton had let go of my soul. But before I could relish in my freedom, the creature vanished and I was up in the air again. I noticed that the flower was back in the corner of the room. Sans dropped me to the floor painfully.

I looked up at the skeleton. "The hell was that for?" Before giving him a chance to respond, I turned towards the flower. "The hell was that? You can RESET?"

"That's what happens when a flower absorbs six human souls," the flower said. "And, to be technically correct, it's not RESETing. It's loading a SAVE."

I blinked. "You make it sound like we're in a video game." The flower smiled and gave me a wink. "Who are you, anyways?"

"I'm Flowey!" he said, seeming unnaturally happy. "Flowey the flower!"

"No sh-"

"You may know me better as Asriel," Flowey cut me off.

The room grew very quiet very fast. Flowey and I stared at each other for a minute. "Is that why… you were so keen on protecting me?"

Flowey winked again. I had never known Asriel to do that. It must be a recent development. "We're still inseparable, even after all these years," he said, then frowned momentarily.

"Anyways, uh, sorry about that, Chara," Sans said, speaking quickly, so quickly I could barely understand him. "In… in the future, someone with a _strikingly_ similar soul energy did some things that I would rather not talk about and… you… you threatening to RESET over and over again… triggered something. Anyways, sorry about all of that."

I tilted my head. "You tried to kill me," I said flatly.

"Well, on the bright side, I didn't succeed this time."

"Pardon me?" I asked. "Have you succeeded in the past?"

Sans grinned at me. "Well, in the future, actually."

"Um… why, exactly? Does this have something to do with the certain point in time which you don't enjoy talking about? Which you came back to stop from happening?"

Sans grimaced. "Well… yes." He hesitated. "Congratulations, Flowey, you've just been nominated to tell the kid. Later, you two." He finger-gunned at me (it seemed to be a habit of his,) and vanished.

"God _damn_ the skeleton!" the flower shrieked. He ran forwards, pacing around the spot where Sans had been standing a minute earlier. "Of _course_ he would leave me to deal with all the messy work. Of _course_ he would run away when things got a little bit uncomfortable. Of _course_ he would leave me to clean up _his_ mess!"

"Asriel!" I shouted. "Stop! Calm down."

The flower froze. "Please… please don't call me that."

I shrugged. "Why not? You said that you were him."

"Er… let's put it this way. Would you appreciate it if I called you Frisk?"

"Um… No, but I don't even know who-"

"Forget that. Bad analogy. Just… I am not entirely the same entity as Asriel. I have his memories, that's all." He hesitated, then looked me in the eye. "You… you are still my very best friend."

"Um… thanks? So, uh, _Flowey…_ what the hell was the skeleton talking about?"

Flowey took a deep breath. Apparently talking, moving flowers have to breath. "Listen, Chara, you're not going to like this. At all. Are you sure you want to know?"

I waved a hand tiredly. "Just tell me, flower."

"Very well," he said, beginning to pace across the floor. "After I absorbed your soul and crossed through the barrier-"

"Hold up. You just said that you weren't the same entity as Asriel."

"Uh, yes, well… I see the memory from his perspective. Just bear with me, okay?" I nodded reluctantly. "Anways," he continued, "The humans thought that I had killed you. They… they attacked me. You tried to make me fight back… I refused. I crossed the barrier back into the Underground. Hours later, I died. My dust spread across the golden flowers that had sprouted in the castle garden… then I became your truly. The king, wracked with grief and filled with a thirst for vengeance, declared that any other humans who fell must die. He would store their SOULs, and then, when he had enough, he would absorb them and blast through the barrier, freeing everyone.

"Now, fast forwards fifty years. Did Sans tell you about Frisk?" I nodded, and Flowey continued. "Right. So he told you about the whole genocide spheal yhadda yhadda yhadda?" I hesitated for a second, then nodded. _I've also seen her kill everyone I ever cared about._ "Anyways, that's where we were right before we got this idea to come back and persuade you not to commit suicide."

"Why, exactly, is that related?"

Flowey hesitated. "W-well… after Asriel died, you SOUL… evaporated. For a while you hung out with me, then… then one day, you left. I... I did not know where you went. All I know, is that one day, when Frisk fell down Mt. Ebott… you and her had joined together.

"Now. Backtracking somewhat. Do your best not to judge me, alright? When you died, I had taken your SAVE and RESET ability. Even as our SOULs separated, I retained that power. At first, I tried to use it for good. I tried to help everybody. Then… I got bored. I decided, one day… that being the good guy had grown old. I was lonely, Chara. Nobody would bother talking to plant. And nobody… nobody had ever understood me since your SOUL left. I decided… I decided I would kill them, Chara." I do not know if he saw the disgusted, horrified expression that crossed my face, but if he did, he didn't address it. "Fifty years of loneliness perverts you into a horrible killing machine. You… you understood. You may not now, Chara, but fifty years into the future, you understood. That's why Sans attacked you. He… you reminded him of what Frisk did on her genocide run." Flowey gave a dark laugh. "You see, Chara…

"You were the one who pushed Frisk to become an evil, murderous killing machine."


	11. Chapter 10

**Chara**

I'm fairly certain that my heart actually stopped beating for a moment as he said those words. A cold chill ran through my body. "I… how… why?" I stuttered. I would never want the blood of hundreds on my hands.

Flowey gave me a twisted, evil smile. "I told you. Fifty years of loneliness gets to you. Humans go mad without any social interactions after just a few _days_ , you know. Imagine what fifty _years_ would do to a person?" He laughed cruelly, then poked his tongue out at me. "Hey, dont feel too badly," he said. "What's done is done. Even if it's not, yet."  
"What?"

"Nevermind. Listen, Chara, that's why we came back for you. I… I am not like you. Not anymore. I don't still have the same innocence that you have. You haven't killed a bunch of monsters, not in this timeline, at least. I, however, still have that burden on my shoulders. But hey, it's not so bad. I'm used to it. I don't have a SOUL, Chara. No remorse for me." He stopped pacing and stopped in front of me. "So, listen, don't beat yourself up about it. Circumstances change people." He gazed into the darkness, his eyes narrowed. "God damn that skeleton. We're stuck here now."

"But he can cross time," I pointed out.

"Yeah, so?"

"So couldn't he just teleport himself to, say, right now?"

The flower shrugged, as much as a flower could. It would be more accurate to say he spread his leaves out. "Theoretically, yes. But he doesn't like me very much, for obvious reasons. So, we're stuck in the basement until he deems us worthy of leaving."

As it turns out, we didn't have to wait very long. The skeleton appeared less than a minute later. He had received several rips in his hoodie from whatever he was doing, and looked somewhat tired. Flowey and I stared at him.

"What the hell were you doing?" the flower asked.

"And for how long?" I added.

Sans pulled down his hood. "Eh, only about a day or so. Sorry, I had to be used as a lab rat for a while."

I blinked. "I'm sorry, you what?"

Sans waved a hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it. Gaster and I go way back. Everything's cool."

"Didn't you say that you weren't supposed to exist in this timeline yet?"

"Yeah, but it's cool," Sans said cryptically. "As I said, we go way back."

"So far back that it was before you were born," grumbled Flowey. "People like you piss me off."

Sans ignored him. "So, uh, here I am!" he said. "Gaster accidentally gave me some cool anti-flower powers, too. So that's a plus."

"Hey!" Flowey protested. "It's not my fault I had to prevent you from murdering Chara."

"Oh, please, weed, don't try to pretend you didn't try to kill me and all of my friends in every pacifist run ever," he grumbled.

"You realize you're changing the course of history by doing that, right?" screamed the flower.

Sans eyed him levelly. "You're an idiot," he said eventually.

"What is… a pacifist run?" I asked uncertainly.

The skeleton turned towards me. "Remember how I said Frisk was simultaneously my best friend and my worst enemy?" I nodded. "Yeah, well, 'pacifist' is when she ends up freeing all of the monsters. Nobody's entirely sure how… she's a human, of course, so she can't absorb the other human souls, but somehow, she-"

"Wow, skeleton, way to undercredit me," grumbled Flowey. Sans turned to him, confused, and the flower's eyes widened. "You mean you- you didn't know-" A sly grin formed on his face. "And you called me the idiot," he howled. "I, my friend, shattered the barrier. After, of course, I tried to kill Frisk again."

Sans tilted his head. "Um… why?"

"Because Frisk is a pacifist fool!" he snarled.

"No, like, why, exactly did you shatter the barrier?"

Flowey hesitated. "Uh…" he began, then stopped. Eventually he gave an awkward half-shrug and said, "Because Asriel appeared from nowhere, took over my body, became the Angel of Hyperdeath and absorbed all of your SOULs, giving him the power to break the barrier? Then he tried to kill Frisk for no good reason before coming to his senses and shattering the barrier before mysteriously disappearing?"

Sans gazed at the flower. "Forget I asked," he said.

"Hold on," I interrupted. "So monsters eventually become free? You guys all go back to the surface?"

Sans shrugged. "It takes fifty plus years, but yes, eventually we do make our way back to the surface." I nodded as I processed this information.

"So, uh, how long do you plan on holding us captive in this basement?" pressed Flowey. Sans shifted his gaze to him.

"I think I'll keep you here forever, weed," he grumbled. "Chara, you can leave if you want."

I raised my eyebrows and tilted my head. "How, exactly, do you expect me to leave?" I asked, placing one hand on my hip.

Sans shook his head as if to clear it. "Sorry," he said. "I assume you want to return to the castle?"

I hesitated, licking my lips thoughtfully. "Uh, actually, can you take me to right before you first came back in time?"

Sans looked up, surprised. "Why? Remember, you can't let your past self see you, either. We don't know what the consequences of that would be."

"Oh. Right," I said, feeling foolish. "Just take me back to that god damned alleyway. That's where I disappeared from, that's where I want to return to." Sans nodded. He placed one skeletal hand upon my wrist, and the castle basement melted around us.

"Better catch up to Asriel," he said, leaning close. "I'll see you later, Princess," he said, then vanished. I stared at the spot where he stood for several seconds before taking off up the hill that my adopted brother had disappeared to, what felt like days but was really only seconds ago.


	12. Chapter 11

**Sans**

"There you are, Sans," Gaster said as I entered his dimly lit lab. "I was wondering how long it would take you to come back here."

"Heh, you know me too well, Dad."

"It's my job," he said in reply, a rare smile crossing his face. "Listen, son, Chara was looking for you a few days ago. She said-"

My head snapped up. I hadn't seen her since I took her back to the street corner, nearly a year in the past, in my mind. For Chara, it had been less than a month. "I should go talk to her," I said.

"No need for that," Gaster said. "She said that all she wanted to do was give you this," he said. He held out a wrinkled envelope in one of his many hands. I grabbed it from him, tearing it open. A letter written in scratchy handwriting was enclosed.

 _Dear Sans,_

 _How long has it been? Days? Months? Years? Heh. Only you know. Listen, skeleton, you and Flowey always stressed the importance of not messing up the timeline. Yet you two agreed to come back in time to fix a mistake. Do you know what you were doing? You were playing god._

 _Listen, I know that you're not perfect. Hell, I play god all the time. Not everyone has the SAVE and RESET ability. If they did, the world would never progress, because everyone would constantly go to their previous SAVE to fix mistakes. The world would be stuck repeating the same couple of days over, and over, and over again. I don't know why I, of all people, got entrusted with that ability, but, for some reason, I did. So, I feel like it's my responsibility to use it properly. Gods are supposed to care for the worlds they create, right? So that's what I'm doing. Forgive me for this, Sans._

 _You said that the monsters are eventually freed. That you eventually escape to the surface. So go forth, my friend, and make a life for yourself up there. I know it'll be hard. I know that Frisk will experiment with playing god, too. In the end, we all would if we could. But listen to me, Sans, don't blame her for that. She may try to kill everyone, but she also tries to free everyone. If you ask me, she does a good job at being a god. Nobody's perfect, not even the omnipotent. So trust her, okay? Don't hold any grudges._

 _Now, I know that none of that happened yet. But it will. You know why? I'm RESETting. I'm sorry, Sans. I am going to eat those god damned buttercups. I'm going to smooth over any bumps in the timeline that you and Flowey created. Please don't make them again. Nothing will come of it._

 _Why? I want you guys to have your happy ending. If it means that Asriel and I have to die, then so be it. In the end, you guys come out on top. And Goat Boy and I can still observe the world, hidden inside of our vessels. (Please tell this to Flowey, too. I know that Asri would be very disappointed if Flowey just ran off and hid.) Asriel, too, has gained knowledge of your plan. He agrees with me: it's better to sacrifice two for the sake of everyone else. So, skeleton, while the Asriel of the next timeline wouldn't know that he consented to this, you must remember that he has. Everything was done willfully. Good luck to you, and take care of Frisk for me._

 _Love,_

 _Chara_

 _P.S., try to lighten up. We would all appreciate a joke out of our favorite time god every now and then._

My vision blurred. "G-gaster…" I said. "I… I am sorry." Tenderly, not wanting to damage it, I placed the letter back into the envelope. An picture that I had not previously noticed fell out as I did so. I picked it up off of the floor tenderly. It was a crudely rendered drawing of me, Chara, and Flowey. On the back, scrawled lettering read, " _don't forget."_

"What does it say, Sans?" Gaster said.

I looked up at him. "I… I failed. I promised you I would keep Chara safe, but… in the end… she's just resetting again. I… I am sorry." I felt Gaster wrap his hands around me and pull me into his embrace. He did not know what was going on, I knew; he was not, as Chara had described me, a "time god." He did not remember ever making me promise anything of the sort. But I did, and knowing I let him down once more hurt more than anything.

I'm never making another promise.

 **A/N: The End! :)**

 **...Seriously. That's it. That's the end of this story. Was it trolly? I hope so. ("You idiot. Did you really think that that plan was going to work?") So! I hope you enjoyed! Until you found out that your hopes and dreams were all in vain! Really, the entire proceedings of this fanfiction has zero effect on the timeline (except for making Sans appreciate jokes in honor of Chara's request. I'm sure Papyrus would be very angry will Chara if he found that out) . It was still fun to write, though!**

 **Anyways, please, please, please, post a review about what you though of it, you should know that no fanfiction author gets annoyed by reviews, and in fact most actually love getting them. Pro Tip: more reviews=more stories. So, tell me what you thought!**


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